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As the Government of India prepares the 11th Five Year Plan, it is crucial that UNICEF works with its partners at the national and state levels to ensure that children’s rights are adequately reflecte
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As the Government of India prepares the 11th Five Year Plan, it is crucial that UNICEF works with its partners at the national and state levels to ensure that children’s rights are adequately reflected – and resourced – in the Plan. One of the key means of influencing the final outcome document is through the Working Groups constituted to develop the 11th Plan paper which will are responsible for formulating specific proposals, programmes and schemes to be implemented during 11th Plan period. To this end, the Planning Department of the Government of Uttar Pradesh (GoUP), in conjunction with UNICEF UP, convened a two day workshop in Lucknow from May 4th to 5th to contribute to the preparation of the 11th Five Year Plan in the state.

The objectives of the workshop were to:

Develop a shared understanding of senior government officials about the status of children and women in Uttar Pradesh and what needs to be done to improve their situation

Suggest recommendations and immediate next steps to the Government of Uttar Pradesh for the integration of a robust plan of action for the development of the 11th Five Year Plan

Initiate a process of promoting results-based management.

The key outcomes of the workshop were as follows:

An agreement to develop a status report on children in UP under the leadership of the Chief Secretary by end June 2006 that will be included in the 11th Five Year Plan document

Groundwork was laid for the preparation of brief strategy papers by group members (see below) to be presented to the Planning Department who in turn will share these strategy papers with State Five Year Plan sub-committee members

In addition, a panel of experts led by the Secretary of the Planning Department summarized the key areas that the 11th Five Year Plan should focus on, especially in relation to child development:

Enhance monitoring system which produces district-wise data on an annual basis including IMR, MMR and outcomes in education

Establish a monitoring system which will track each child and provide an integrated data set for all departments (using IT enabled system)

Recognizing the flexibility at district level in the use of public resources, and the significant level of resources (up to 300 crores), remove the constraints to effective planning and management of resources, including building of capacity and improve systems, and enhance transparency

Develop a results-based plan around children as part of the 11th Plan with clear responsibilities for each result

The process followed in running the workshop is described below:

A vivid picture of the situation of children in India and UP in particular was painted by senior government and UNICEF officials

This was followed by an exploration of the relationship between outlays and outcomes (or lack thereof) was explored

GoUP departments presented progress to date within the context of the 10th Five Year Plan, and their preliminary ideas for the 11th Plan

An analysis of UP’s budget from the perspective of allocations for children was made by the Centre for Budget Governance & Accountability

The concept of “results-based management” was introduced by UNICEF

Six groups ((Health, Education, Nutrition, Child Protection, Planning, Water and Sanitation) then discussed and reported back on four cross cutting areas: improvement in quality of services, including human resources & capacity building; reaching the most disadvantaged; convergence planning and implementation, including improving monitoring systems to track results; public and private partnerships; and budget allocations.

Participants in the workshop included the N.C. Bajpei, the Chief Secretary of GoUP; Cecilio Adorna, the Country Representative for UNICEF; N. C. Saxena, Former Secretary to the Planning Commission, Government of India; V.Venkatachalam, Principal Secretary of the Planning Department, GoUP; Nimal Hettiaratchy, State Representative, UNICEF UP; Robert Jenkins, Chief, Strategic Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, UNICEF India; government officials from UP; leading members of local research institutions and civil society; and others from UNICEF and partner agencies.

It was felt that the workshop was transformational, even “historic”, in its approach to, and success in, putting children at the heart of UP’s development agenda.